
How to Achieve Stress-Free Productivity
Pro(ductivity) Tip# 94
You are never too busy to take inventory of your important work.
When life starts to feel like it’s spiralling out of control I find that it is because I lost sight of my tasks. Often it is because I did not take accurate account of the urgencies I had coming up or the demands they would make on my time. I was caught off guard.
This is never a good feeling and wrecks havoc on productivity. I have found two practices to be helpful in helping me avoid this situation.
- Capture Open Loops
- Review List on a Weekly and Daily Basis
Capture Open Loops
When I capture all my open loops I essentially capture in a to do list all of the tasks I need to address. Regardless of how insignificant my conscious mind may perceive the task to be, if it is on my mind there is a part of me that believes it to be important. If it is on my mind, it is on my list. David Allen author of Getting Things Done often states that minds are good for thinking of ideas not on keeping them. He further explains the importance of documenting your ideas immediately into an external system.
This basic practice will help you regain a general since of control. It will also help you sleep a bit better at night as your mind will not be anxiously trying to keep tabs on all of your action items. You can relax in knowing that you have captured all of your to dos in a reliable system.
I can’t count how many times I tossed and turned through the night because I was thinking of all the things I needed to do the next day. Somewhere in my subconscious mind I did not want to forget these things, and as a result my laundry list of to do’s kept on playing in the background. However when I finally started capturing all of the things I needed to address in a to do list, I gave my mind permission to let go.
Review lists on a weekly and daily cadence
Once you have all of your open loops captured it’s important that you review them on a weekly and basis.
Your weekly review is when you audit your to do lists and plan your activities for the next 5–7 days. This time will help you ensure you are current on all of your action items and that nothing is falling through the gaps.
If you are familiar with the Agile Scrum methodology the weekly review is similar to the sprint planning session at the beginning of the week. Don’t skimp on the weekly review it is the corner stone of your personal productivity. A good weekly review session will spare you a lot of unnecessary rework and fire fighting.
I recommend carving out 1–2 hours at the beginning of the week to conduct this session. You maybe thinking that you don’t have time for this. I thought the same thing too, however I found that 1–2 hours I invested in planning saved me 5–7 hours in avoidable rework and fire fighting. It was easier for me to be highly productive with minimal effort. David Allen calls this state stress free productivity, I call it AMAZING.
Your daily review is all about getting focused for the day. This review helps you dial in on the 2–3 priorities that you need to achieve. The clarity alone regarding your daily work will provide you a tremendous sense of control and accomplishment. I generally dedicate a brief 10–15 minute block of time in the morning to review my priorities. This similar to the daily stand up in agile scrum.
Try out these two productivity tips and let me know how they work for you.
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